The discussions and the reaching of a compromise can help overcome the problems faced by farmers who are protesting in the Great National Assembly Square, Viorel Chivriga, economic policy expert of the Institute for Development and Social Initiatives “Viitorul”, stated in a public debate hosted by IPN. He noted that some of farmers’ demands are judicious, but the demand to impose a moratorium on the payment of penalties and debts to banks will lead to interference in the work of the financial-banking sector.
According to the expert, the protesting farmers’ demand to impose a moratorium on the payment of penalties and debts to banks and other creditors is not a viable solution and will lead to state interference in the work of commercial banks.
“Discussions should be held with farmers and with other categories of economic operators. If we speak about the relations between economic operators and commercial banks, we should not forget that banks’ activities are favorable for the country’s economy. I see another problem here. Why are the loans in the Republic of Moldova so expensive compared with other countries? We should remember the fraud of the century, which keeps serious investors far from the financial sector, but these could provide acceptable loans, in accordance with farmers’ expectations. These problems should be dealt with. If one demands that the commercial banks should impose a one-year moratorium, this is interference in an area that has its own rules,” stated Viorel Chiviriga.
Tens of farmers took their tractors to the central square of Chisinau and demand that the authorities should help the farmers affected by drought. Furthermore, the farmers say that they cannot honor their obligations to banks and creditors after the purchase price of grain and seed crops plummeted.
“If we speak about the refund of the VAT, this is a situation when the demands can be considered plausible as problems in the refunding of the VAT have been permanently encountered both on export and in trade and this hampers the economic operators. The state should have an at least friendly position on the economic sector. The discussions the famers protesting in the central square have with representatives of the Government should not be held under strain. They should be constructive and should help to remove the animosities. Pressure should be avoided in a rather difficult period for the Republic of Moldova. I fear the political component will take to the forefront. For Moldova, this would be a new distressing situation as we take one step forward and three steps backward and cannot reach the European Union,” explained Viorel Chiviriga.
Under the 2024 draft state budget law, the National Agriculture Development Fund next year will be of 1.6 billion lei. The expert of “Viitorul” Institute believes the subsidization of agriculture should generate profitable businesses in this sector or the agricultural subsidies should be redirected to other areas.
“If we refer to subsidies, things have advanced here. The size of the subsidization fund was practically raised twofold. We should bear in mind that the Republic of Moldova is not Romania or another country of the European Union and its budget cannot be compared with the budgets of European states. To be able to subsidize something, one should have budget revenues. The utility of subsidies is the most important aspect. If these are distributed and do not produce any result, the subsidies should be better transferred to other sectors of the economy. We need productivity in agriculture, markets, prosperous businesses. We proposed to gradually switch over to subsidies per hectare and per animal,” said the economic expert.
The public debate entitled “What do farmers want? What can Government do?” was the 296th installment of IPN’s project “Developing Political Culture through Public Debates” which is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation.
